Last Friday, when me and my dad were deciding on where to go the next day, we deciding on a very last minute decision to go to Drayton Manor. We got there to find the park was nearly dead other than Thomas Land which was packed. For some unknown reason, they didn't have any halloween stuff going on.

The first ride we headed for was Ben 10 because I knew it could get huge queues later in the day and I hadn’t been on it yet. Because we had got there before the rides opened, we had to wait about 15 minutes for the ride to open. While waiting, I took these photos of Ben 10 and its surroundings:After walking through the very well themed queue, we managed to get onto the first train of the day. This ride was actually a lot taller than I expected and a lot of fun.

Next, we headed down to another ride I knew had low capacity, G-force and I can officially say I’d hate that queue building if full. It was dark with music being blasted into your ears and it being just one huge cattle pen. This photo shows how dark it was. Unfortunately it doesn’t show how loud the music was or the cattle pen though.

The ride was as amazing as usual but a bit rougher than I remember at the bottom of the Norwegian loop. It’s still very, very short though and definitely could do with being longer. The lift is still the best lift I’ve been on. I managed to get front row.

After G-force, we headed to Shockwave and I found out Drayton seem to love cattle pens for queues. Not as bad as G-forces though. The ride is very fun but rough in places and it snaps through the zero g very quickly. So quickly I found it quite uncomfy. Like on Ben 10, me and my dad got to skip part of the very short queue by being a 2. I got back far left which happened to be the bit I got last time I was on it.

As Stormforce was down and my dad doesn’t like spinny things, I went on my own onto Maelstrom which was actually on a quite long ride cycle. Brilliant ride and actually quite a forceful swing. During this ride, I helped a wasp break the wasp speed record as on landed on me during the ride. Don’t know how it landed on me though. While in the short queue for it, I took quite a few photos of Maelstrom and G-force:

Shortly afterwards, my phone died so that’s it for photos. After Maelstrom, I found my dad and headed into the biggest queue of the day, Troublesome Trucks! During the queue, my dad mentioned he liked the use of the turntable on the Thomas land railway and I complained of how it wasn’t steam and how they could have made the station better. Once on, we got the back seats for a great kids ride with a very jerky lift hill. As we had parked near Thomas Land, on the second circuit, I was looking for our car over the fence.

After that, we headed up for the first of many goes on Apocalypse. First up was stand up floorless which at first I didn’t think was open as nobody was down there and every other time I’ve been on it, that side has been shut. Turned out it was open and I did manage to get on. What I can say is it is a weird sensation just hanging there. Fun though.After that, as we were in the area, we decided to see how bad The Haunting was. Answer? Very cheesily and badly done but still a fun ride. The bouncy floor room was fun and if this ride was outdoors the locals would definitely try and get it shut down with the amount of screaming that went on when the lights went out. Also, I now also love the bats on a stick!

Next, while my dad went for a cup of tea, I went on Pandemonium. This is a very fun ride which actually hurt my shoulders when I was hung upside down. Good length of ride cycle though.

After Pandemonium, My dad wanted to go on the Buffalo, so we entered the 2nd longest queue of the day for the worst ride of the day. Somehow it was much slower than I remember but I still managed to whack my knee against the side of the car. My dad liked the old engineering in it though.

While I was sitting on Pandemonium waiting for it to get going, I noticed that Stormforce was going so we strolled to there. We got there for there to be hardly any queue and we got on the next boat into the station. This ride was as fun and as wet as usual and I got soaked. The first drop is always higher than I think as well. After this I had wet socks all day.

After Stormforce, we went for lunch in the chicken place which was while over-priced, very nice and you actually do get a good amount of chips. Pity the same doesn’t go for the chicken.

After lunch and a toilet break, we went on the rapids which I would rate between Alton’s and Thorpe’s with Alton’s being the best. These rapids are very fun and surprisingly for 2 people in a boat, I got wet!!! Granted it wasn’t by the water but by something squirting water at me. It was on this where I noticed the ground clearance possibly for the new ride.

After that, we headed back to Apocalypse but got side-tracked but the Pirate Ship which my dad didn’t go on. This was actually quite good for a pirate ship this with a decent swing height and amount of airtime. With the swing height, at the full swing you could look up or down vertically if you leant forwards or back depending on which side was swung up.

After the Pirate Ship, we got side-tracked again by Excalibur which was rubbish as usual but the themeing is pretty good and would be funny for children. My favourite part of the themeing has got to be the dragon in the building with the hands moving along the wall with the dragon. That bit is cool. This ride is good to relax and waste time on like the lake boat which I went on later.

In the Excalibur exit, we noticed something in a building which was pretty popular so we went on an explore to it. It turned out it was some rather oldish looking dodgems so we went on them. These had a decent ride cycle and a decent number of cars on so the queue moved at a good speed while giving everyone a good go. Annoyingly, I only hit my dad twice.

After the dodgems, there was one more ride I wanted before Apocalypse which was the drunken barrels. Again, my dad sat out for this. This ride while still fun was a lot slower than I remember and my dad also mentioned it looked slow from outside the ride though. This is also probably the best themed flat ride I’ve ever been on.

Finally, we managed to get on Apocalypse again. This time we went on the stand-up floored side and will agree that side is much better somehow than the floorless side. Probably the reason is that it is much more of a natural position to be in so the falling seems more natural. Also, it felt like my legs wanted to move up from the rest but they didn’t which also made the floored side better. Somehow the On-ride camera missed us so all there was, was a picture of the tower with no carriage in it at all.

I think now we headed down to G-force and Shockwave for re-rides. Both were as good as before but I didn’t get front row on G-force. After that, in this order it was Stormforce again, Pirate Adventure, Lake boat, Flying Dutchman chairswing thing which my dad fell asleep on, Pandemonium again, Doughnut break, Ben 10, Apocalypse sitting and finally Apocalypse standing.

Quick Summary

For those who can’t be bothered to read all that above, here’s a quick summary of all the rides I went on.G-force x2 - Fun, Great lift-hill, rough in places, too short but great restraints.Shockwave x2 - Fun, Rough in places, slightly uncomfy with the way it’s snaps through the zero-g very quickly. Restraints over complicatedRapids x1 - Fun, actually got wet, noticed ground clearance, good lengthStormforce 10 x2 - Fun, Very wet ride, first drop always taller than expected, Dad likes Archimedes screw.Pirate ship x1 - Fun, very steep swing height, Great ride cycle, probably the best Pirate ship been on in a while.Lake boat x1 - Only went on this to waste time, Gave unique view of park, quite relaxing, expected commentary which I didn’t get.Flying Dutchman x1 - Only went on this to waste time, actually surprisingly fun, started off like flying bumper boats, Dad fell asleep on it.Buffalo x1 - Boring, remind me never to go on it again, slow, old, noisy, hurt my knee slightly but Dad likes the engineering.Pandemonium x2 - Very fun, slightly disentoriating, hurts shoulders, makes nearly all blood rush to head.Apocalypse-Stand up floorless x1 - Very fun, weird sensation.Apocalypse- Stand up floored x2 - Very fun, better than floorless due to more natural position, Camera somehow missed us.Apocalypse- Sit-down x1 - Fun, Only did it to compare to rest of tower, not as good as rest of tower.Drunken Barrels x1 - Fun, very spinny, not as fast or as spinny as I remember.The haunting x1 - Fun, very cheesy, bouncy floor was quite cool, seemed quite cheaply done.Ben 10 x2 - Fun, taller than expected, very open cars, very well themed queue.Excalibur x1 - Relaxing, well themed, funny for kids. I have suspicions it’s from CamelotDodgems x1 – Unexpected, Fun as usual, a lot of cars, only hit my dad twice.Pirate Adventure x1 – Didn’t know it was there, well themed, very much like river caves, has unexpected drop in that doesn’t get you wet.Troublesome trucks x1 – Fun, Longest queue of the day, Very good for kids coaster, Lift-hill unexpectedly very jerky, Favourite kids coaster.Maelstrom x2 – Brilliant fun, Long ride cycle, just very, very good

Best ride – Haven’t decided but either G-force or Maelstrom, both are very, very good.Worst ride - By far, Buffalo.